Tommy John Surgery for Mets' Star Matt Harvey?

Matt Harvey’s pitching has been a revelation for the New York Mets this season. Almost all by himself he’s given the downtrodden franchise hope. He started the All-Star Game at Citi Field in July and if not for an historic season by Clayton Kershaw would be the front-runner for the National League Cy Young Award.

Seemingly out of nowhere Monday afternoon news began to emerge that the righty went for an MRI at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Source: Matt Harvey underwent an MRI this morning at HSS. More details forthcoming.

This tweet from Carig was manually re-tweeted hundreds of times, prompting every incarnation of “oh no,” “Nooooo,” “whaaat” and “why?” from nervous Mets’ fans.

More details are slowly starting to emerge. Harvey pitched in Saturday’s 3-0 loss at home to the Tigers, allowing a season-high 13 hits in 6 2/3 innings. His previous hit in hits allowed this year had been eight.

Overall Harvey is 9-5 with a 2.27 ERA. He’s struck out 191 batters in 178+ innings. The Mets had talked about using a six-man rotation for the final month of the season to lessen his workload. He’d been averaging over 96 mph on his fastball this season.

Mets fans will now wait to find out how serious the UCL tear is in Harvey’s arm. Tommy John surgery might be necessary but the club won’t make that decision today and wait until the swelling goes down.

Harvey himself thought it was just “tightness” in his forearm and that the pain had been going on for “some time.” He, like the club, wants to do everything possible to avoid Tommy John surgery, which would likely shelve him until 2015.

Mets fans are easy targets, but please, be nice: this is awful news. Offer a pat on the back or a shoulder to cry on.